Ear, Hand, Foot had a good first week. I’ve fulfilled over a hundred orders in the last six days.
Don’t wait to order! We only ordered 500 copies for our first printing and almost half of them are sold. And the Christmas shopping season has only just started. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a big fat “Out of Stock” message on the website soon.
Keep up with the pace car by subscribing to our newsletter (scroll to the bottom of the page).
Drop by if you’re at Council.
Just ordered a couple display copies of Ear, Hand, Foot for you to see at Council. It’s gonna be sweet.
Alastair Roberts was good enough to mention Psalm Tap in a recent newsletter.
This is this week’s edition of Time’s Corner, my bi-weekly newsletter. Sign up here.
Behold! My friend Brian Moats and I have started a publishing company! It’s called Little Word. We create children’s books that teach Biblical symbols and patterns, particularly typological motifs. Read more on our website. (If you click on only one link today, make it this one.)
Years ago, I saw this posted on Twitter:
At the time, I had already toyed with the idea of creating a “Through New Eyes for Kids” book series, and when I saw this tweet, I realized a series like that would have an audience. I opened a notebook and started scribbling down ideas.
Later that same year, I happened upon Anne-Margot Ramstein’s picture book Before/After. There are no words in the book, nor any story. Instead, each page spread has two pictures side by side and you’re invited to figure out the connection between them. Despite the fact that there’s nothing to read or fiddle with, it’s one of the most interactive books I’ve ever read.
One of the most common connections between the two pictures is time—hence the name: Before/After. A beehive becomes honey. A jungle becomes a city. Sometimes, Ramstein highlights time’s cyclical nature. Day, night. Summer, winter. High tide, low tide. My favorite pages are where one object remains fixed while everything around it changes. Time acts more slowly on some things than others.
This struck me as powerful way to depict typology. Take Samson. Arms outstretched, one hand on each pillar, positioned in exactly the same way that Jesus was on the cross. Put Samson and Jesus on two facing pages and invite the reader to make connections between them. Even a child could do it—especially a child.
Aedan Peterson actually did something like this in Ken Padgett’s The Story of God Our King. Three sequential pages show Jesus in the same posture, arms oustretched, while the scene changes around him.
Pretty cool.
Meanwhile, in his home office, Brian had been editing hours upon hours of footage of Jim Jordan, Peter Leithart, Alastair Roberts, and Jeff Meyers talking about Biblical typology. He had taught youth Sunday school classes on Through New Eyes and The Lord’s Service and found his students extremely receptive to the ideas in those books. It was just a matter of time before Brian decided to adapt Jordan and Meyers for kids. He approached me about the idea and lo! Little Word was born.
I’ll keep you updated on our progress here at Time’s Corner, but the best way to stay informed is to follow Little Word on all the socials. Click for the ‘gram, the Tweetster, the Facity-Face, etc.
I’m happier with this than I am with anything I’ve written in a while.
Someone on Twitter (maybe Joss Whedon – remember him?) once wrote, “I love it when my friends go internet-silent for a while, then suddenly reappear with some new project just completed.” Well, I have no major accomplishments to reveal (yet…), but here are a couple of news items from the world of Broken Bow.
For manifold reasons, I’ve decided to start a newsletter. I’m calling it Time’s Corner, after a phrase the Green Lady says to Ransom in Perelandra.
Do not wonder, O Piebald Man, that your world should have been chosen for time’s corner. You live looking out always on heaven itself, and as if this were not enough Maledil takes you all thither in the end. You are favoured beyond all worlds.
[Quote cribbed from here]
What the Green Lady is refering to is the time and place at which all of reality bends: the death of Christ on a cross in Jerusalem. I don’t pretend that this newsletter will be anywhere near as significant as that Event of Events, of course. But I do want the things I write about here to direct the attention of whoever reads them to that most crucial point. After Jesus died, rose, and ascended, nothing was the same, and that includes writing, art, and email newsletters. We’re still figuring out its ramifications. Consider this another teeny push in that direction.
Here’s the plan. On Mondays, I’ll send out a mid-length essay about writing, literature, or art. At the end of the Monday issue, I’ll ask my readers a question, like, “What’s a non-biblical quote or poem that never fails to encourage you?” On Thursdays, I’ll send out my favorite responses to the question, along with some comments.
If that sounds like a jolly old time to you, sign up here.
Why, you ask, have you been posting pictures instead of that sweet, sweet written content I patronize this site for? Aren’t you a writer? Hey, man, I reply, I have been writing, just not for this venue. Chill.
The real reason is that I’ve been too busy teaching to think about the things I usually blog about. Since my place of employment has, like every high school in the country, gone virtual, I’ve been using Youtube to teach Latin.
You can watch more Latin vids here, if you wish. Meanwhile, all I can say is, “Utinam iterum in schola doceam!”
Christian Leithart 